O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU - O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU

Personnel: Chris Thomas King, Dan Tyminski, Norman Blake, Sharon White (vocals, guitar); Sidney Cox (vocals, banjo); Suzanne Cox, Buck White (vocals, mandolin); John Hartford (vocals, fiddle); Wilson Waters (vocals, tenor saxophone); Cheryl White, Sarah Peasall, David Rawlings, Porter McLister, First Baptist Church Choir of White House, TN, First Baptist Church of Norfolk Choir, Joseph Rice, Dub Cornett, Gillian Welch, Harley Allen, Robert Hamlett, Leah Peasall, James Hill, Isaac Freeman, Willard Cox, Sam Phillips , Alison Krauss, Maura O'Connell, Tim Blake Nelson, Tim O'Brien, Pat Enright, Hannah Peasall (vocals); Mike Compton (guitar, mandolin); Chris Sharp, Evelyn Cox (guitar); Curtis Burch, Jerry Douglas (dobro); Ron Block (banjo); Sam Bush (mandolin); Stuart Duncan (fiddle).
Audio Mixer: Mike Piersante.
Liner Note Author: Robert K. Oermann.
Arrangers: Ed Haley; Gillian Welch; Alan Lomax; T-Bone Burnett; Carter Stanley.
Those kings of cinematic quirkiness, the Coen brothers, fashioned their film O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? as a contemporary adaption of Homer's Odyssey, centering around a group of American chain-gang prisoners. The film's earthy Southern setting makes it a natural for a bluegrass-oriented soundtrack, for which producer T-Bone Burnett picked the cream of the country crop.
"Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby," for example, is a summit meeting of some of the finest contemporary female country vocalists (Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Alison Krauss). The old school isn't forgotten either, as evidenced by a chilling a cappella rendering of "O Death," courtesy of Ralph Stanley, and by the closing cut, where the Stanley Brothers issue an elegant plea to heaven with "Angel Band."

• Format: CD
• Released: 12/5/2000
• Genre: Soundtracks
• Format: CD
• Released: 12/05/2000
• Genre: Soundtracks
• Genre: Soundtracks & Film Scores
• Released: 12/05/2000